A Bigger Bite of Apple

The scaling-up of US tech giant's plans in India is good news but it does have challenges

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Apple's efforts to navigate through the disruption of US President Donald Trump's trade war with China augurs well for the scaling up of its iPhone production in India. The $3-trillion US tech giant has been deepening its local presence over the last four years. Now it plans to shift the assembly of all US-sold iPhones as soon as next year to India, according to the Financial Times. This is an opportunity that must be seized although it is not without its challenges. Apple's pivot away from China — where it still has the manufacturing ecosystem to assemble 80% of all iPhones — has been driven by Trump's disruptive tariffs of as much as 145% on the mainland. Although the US suspended reciprocal tariffs on electronics on April 12, the dragon's exports of smartphones to the US still face 20% tariffs. A 20% cost advantage clearly makes India a more attractive supplier for Apple that dominates US smartphone imports. In fact, after Trump's tariff announcements, Apple rushed to export available Indian-mad